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Towards the holy grail of defining `brand'
Leslie de Chernatony
Marketing Theory 2009 9: 101
DOI: 10.1177/1470593108100063
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Volume 9(1): 101–105
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DOI: 10.1177/1470593108100063
articles
Towards the holy grail of defining ‘brand’
Leslie de Chernatony
University of Birmingham Business School, UK
Abstract. As an intangible asset, the meaning of ‘brand’ varies between managers in
the same organization striving to increase their brand’s performance. This paper considers from an evolutionary perspective how brand interpretations vary and a unifying definition is postulated. Key Words brand definition brand meanings
evolving brand spectrum
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Evolutionary brand interpretations
Diverse interpretations of ‘brand’ are noted both in the literature (Strizhakova et
al., 2008) and among managers (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1999).
Without a common interpretation among the pan-company team supporting the
brand, resources are likely to be sub-optionally employed and the brand is unlikely
to achieve its potential. A plethora of interpretations are documented in the
literature, yet without some basis for understanding their inter-relationship, their
documentation is only of partial usefulness. Goodyear (1996) and Kunde (2000)
were some of the early authors to show how brands evolve over time. Building on
their frameworks and considerable interaction with brand marketers in product
and services sectors, it is postulated that brand interpretations among the brand
management team follow the evolutionary spectrum shown in Figure 1.
The logic behind this spectrum and detail about each stage are now addressed.
Differentiation
One of the initial roles of a brand is to attract attention and stand out from competitors. Unfortunately, where there is a lack of branding sophistication, emphasising attributes such as logos, colour and design, without associating these with
unique benefits curtails brand success (Keller et al., 2008). The American
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Added value
Vision
Personality
Positioning
Differentiation
Figure 1
Managerial evolving interpretations of ‘brand’
Marketing Association (AMA) brand definition captures brands at this level, i.e.
‘name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them
from those of competitors’. The problem is this is similar to the definition of a
trademark.
If the AMA definition were to talk about ‘differentiation through association
with a unique benefit’, the values based richness of brand could encourage more
expansionary brand building programmes. Given consumers’ finite cognitive
capabilities (Mittal et al., 2008), the logo, colour or design could link to a bigger
chunk in memory (Miller, 1956) representing the unique benefits of the brand.
Positioning
Some managers escape the ‘logoization’ mentality and, undertaking gap analysis
then working with innovation and process teams, strive to deliver and communicate a functional advantage. Focusing predominantly on customer delighting
functional benefits (Barwise and Meehan, 2004) they develop strategies to fight
through a sea of sameness to register the brand’s functional benefit in customers’
minds (Jones, 2000). Provided there is clarity of internal communications
(Simmons, 2000) and an integrated production and delivery strategy, the brand’s
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Towards the holy grail of defining ‘brand’
Leslie de Chernatony
functionality should meet customers’ expectations. The problem is that this is
non-sustainable.
Personality
Attentive not only to what customers receive, but how they receive it (Grönroos,
2007; Vargo and Lusch, 2004), brand marketers recognize that it is cognition plus
effect that influences brand choice. The feelings about a brand result from the
emotions stirred by brand communications (Franzen and Bouwman, 2001) and
the organizational cultures that drive different forms of staff behaviour (Cameron
and Quinn, 2006). These are more sustainable than functionality. With a chief
engagement officer (Smythe, 2007) who works closely with the directors of
Internal Values Management (HR) and External Values Delivery (Marketing),
employees are encouraged to be living exemplars of their brands (Ind and Bjerke,
2007), interacting with stakeholders in a manner that reinforces their brand values
(de Chernatony and Cottam, 2008; Martin and Hetrick, 2006). To enable stakeholders to consistently have the same desired feelings about the brand from their
contact with employees, brand and staff values alignment programmes are implemented (Barrow and Moseley, 2005) to minimize the effect from brand saboteurs
(Wallace and de Chernatony, 2008).
When the values of employees resonate with the desired brand values communicated to customers, there is greater trust. Customers feel more confident selecting brands to reflect their self-identity (Escalas and Bettman, 2005) as well as
facilitating membership of particular social groups (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001).
Vision
To sustain employee commitment (Domm, 2001), give a clear sense of direction
(Kakabadse et al., 2005) and be better regarded in society (Edwards and Day,
2005), the senior management team spend time considering how their brand can
make the world a better place. They strive to consider how their brand values can
contribute to enhance societal well-being. A promise is sought, for example a bank
and ethical investment, a car and protecting national parks (de Chernatony, 2006).
As brand communities make increasing use of the internet to test the integrity of
brands and to have greater dialogues with managers about the societal significance
of brands (Weber, 2007), the visionary interpretation of brand should encourage
greater customer commitment.
Added value
At this sophisticated level, pan-value chain-driven management consistently
strives to deliver the same welcomed relationship at every point of contact (Hatch
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and Schultz, 2001). Having significantly narrowed the identity-image gap
(Kapferer, 2008) and successfully minimized customers’ perceived risk (Conchar
et al., 2004), the brand adds value to customers’ lifestyles. By enabling the customer to become a co-creator of value through providing interactive tools over the
internet (e.g. LEGO, Jones Soda, Nike), a community of respect builds around the
brand. The senior management team utilize brand equity measurements to fine
tune brand strategies to drive higher brand valuation results.
A concluding definition
The evolutionary brand spectrum clarifies why and how managers have diverse
interpretations of brands. In this amoebic state a brand could be defined as a cluster of values that enables a promise to be made about a unique and welcomed
experience. This captures the way that emphasis may initially be placed on functionally oriented values, which then become augmented with emotionally oriented values, as brand management sophistication increases, driving a visionary
promise that adds value to all stakeholders.
References
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Towards the holy grail of defining ‘brand’
Leslie de Chernatony
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Leslie de Chernatony is Professor of Brand Marketing at Birmingham University
Business School and Managing Partner of Brands Box Marketing & Research. He has a
substantial number of publications in American and European journals and is a regular
presenter at international conferences. He has several books on brand management, the
two most recent being Creating Powerful Brands (Elsevier, 2003) and From Brand Vision
to Brand Evaluation (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006). Leslie also acts as an international
consultant on brand management. Address: Birmingham University Business School,
Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
[email: [email protected]]
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